The Little Rascals cartoons were originally combined with Hanna-Barbera's adaptation of Richie Rich to form an hour-long series. The cartoons featured the adventures of Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Darla, Porky and their dog Pete. From their tree house headquarters, they plotted and schemed to hilariously defeat their neighborhood adversaries. Scott Menville voiced Spanky, Julie McWhirter Dees supplied the voices of Alfalfa and Porky, Shavar Ross was the voice of Buckwheat, and Patty Maloney voiced Darla.
Click on an image above to see it larger
James H. Vipond e-mailed me with the following information on The Little Rascals cartoons:
"Hanna-Barbera's Little Rascals aired on ABC-TV in 1982-83 with Pac-Man and Richie Rich; the Monchhichis replaced Pac-Man the following season. The cartoons were essentially faithful to Hal Roach's 1922-45 "Our Gang" film series, albeit with such 1980s technology as commercial television and home computers.
Patty Maloney, the 60-pound star of "Far Out Space Nuts," performed convincingly as Darla Hood. (As a matter of fact, Patty--being a sexy blond, hazel-eyed midget--could and should have been a live-action Darla, blended with the animation à la H-B's "Huckleberry Finn.") Julia McWhirter, who had just become Mrs. Rick Dees, had a triple role as Alfalfa, Porky and Woim. Scott Menville, later known as Ma-Ti on "Captain Planet," was the actor for Spanky."
Mr. Vipond recently sent another correction:
"Patty Maloney, the voice of Darla Hood, is not a blonde but a thoroughly Irish redhead. I had received erroneous information from Hanna-Barbera back in September 1985. It wasn't until December 2005 that a friend of Patty asked me to correct this error."
I wish to thank Mr. Vipond for this additional information. To see more pictures from the Little Rascals cartoon go to the Darla Hood Animation Gallery, part of James Vipond's Patty Maloney Appreciation Site..
Click the
link below to see a
full eleven minute Little Rascals cartoon
Little Rascals "Pete's Big Break"
Hanna-Barbera/King World 1982
RARE Claymation Little Rascals Toon
1938 one reel Hal Roach Our Gang short "Came The
Brawn"
In 1966, when King World purchased the rights to the non-MGM Our Gang shorts from Hal Roach, they decided to colorize some of them. Instead of just colorizing them, they hired someone (Art Clokey??) to re-film them in claymation form. There were supposedly six of these "Little Rascals Color Specials" made. Does anyone have any further information on these short films? I've encoded "Came The Brawn" (Original version released in 1938) in RealVideo and put a link to it here:
A Little Rascals Color Special - "Came the Brawn"
King World 1966
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The Forgotten Works of Hanna-Barbera
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